By Paul Brown

Joe Hunt says he's taking the Paul Lambert route to success this season - by asking his players to go out and express themselves.

Lambert has made the point strongly that he believes his players must try to entertain in every game.

And Hunt shares that philosophy as he heads into his debut match in charge of Villa Ladies against Watford Ladies on Sunday.

He said: "I want to win! We'll be going for it. We want to win every single game. We are not there to make up the numbers.

"We'll be going for it, week after week. And we want to entertain.

"There's nothing to be fearful either. We drew and beat Sunderland last time out and they won the title!

"We have to go for wins, starting this weekend.

"Even when the super league sides come into the FA Cup, why not go for it against them too?

"That's my strategy and my philosophy. Rather than sitting back and waiting for something to happen, let's make it happen."

Hunt is confident heading into the season opener and believes the key to success will be his players feeling comfortable with the new 4-3-3 formation.

He continued: "We've changed formation. They were a 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield before. That put a lot of emphasis on the full-backs getting forward.

"I have changed it to a 4-3-3, which will enable us to play with high wingers. They will get in support of the striker, either Carly Davies or Katie Wilkinson.

"It's trying to get our ideas across. It has taken a while.

"A lot of young players have come into the squad and then with me changing formation it has taken a while to get used to it.

"In certain games, there's been spells of them doing great but then moments when they revert to old methods. The last three games it's got better and better.

"We controlled out final warm-up game against Leamington but they also did the things I wanted them to do. I wasn't concerned on the scoreline, just the way they played.

"It's not that I'm a firm advocate of 4-3-3. I just think that suits our players. It's playing to our strengths.

"We have some fantastic wingers in our squad so I want them on the pitch. We have some superb centre midfielders too so I want more of them in there.

"We have been working on changing formations throughout games too so if we do struggle we can go 4-4-2 or 3-2-3-2. We tried quite a few different ones.

"You have to have a backup plan. I firmly believe in that.

"There will be some games when we do struggle with 4-3-3. We might cancel another team out, for example. We need to be fluid and be able to force the issue."

Hunt also hailed his first team coach Karl Fellows for getting the girls in tip-top shape ahead of Sunday's 2pm encounter.

He added: "We've been back since the end of June so it's been a long pre-season.

"The girls came into training on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays for the first three weeks. Then we introduced matches on Sundays while keeping training on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"Then the last couple of weeks we've played matches on Sundays and Wednesdays. That's to step up the fitness levels.

"We've got 22 signed players so it's case of getting them all out on the pitch, get them some minutes and see how they do.

"I am happy with where they are at. Karl has done a fantastic job on the fitness. The girls have worked really hard.

"It was running drills initially and then we introducing high-intensity possession games. The next big thing was obviously getting them on the pitch and seeing them. I have been very happy."

Erin Vaughan [international clearance], Sherry McCue [suspension], Shannie Jennings [illness], Dani Petrovic [personal] and Emma Follis [personal] will all miss the game.

Centre-back Jade Richards, who was struggling with an ankle injury, has been declared fit and will take the captain's armband in Petrovic's absence.

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